Barbara Ward will never die, 1968

Transferred S8 mm film

Using a hand-held camera, Hammer initially shot on 8 mm stock. Her second film—created in 1968 while the artist is still married, and her name is Barbara Ward—programmatically shows the desecration of a graveyard. Though only at the beginning of her development as an artist, she already disturbs the peace of the dead, confidently erecting a monument to herself amid them: “Barbara Ward Will Never Die.” The young filmmaker stakes her claim to a place in history.

Barbara Hammer was born in Hollywood in 1939. Her documentary and experimental films are considered among the earliest and most extensive representations of lesbian identity, love, and sexuality. Accompanying her career as a filmmaker, Hammer has time and again worked with performance and installation. She has participated in group exhibitions such as the Whitney Biennial in 1993 and the WACK! show at MOCA L.A. and MoMA PS1 in 2007/2008. With film retrospectives at New York’s MoMA in 2010 and the Tate Modern, London, in 2012, the artworlds interest in Hammer's work has recently increased. Hammer has been a teacher for many years, she currently holds a professorship at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee (CH). She lives and works in New York.